Scythian SaddleclothThis red felt saddlecloth, dating from the fifth century B.C.E., is decorated with appliqués showing a winged griffon vulture with its claws in the back of a horned ibex. It was made by one of the nomadic peoples of western Asia, an area the Greeks called Scythia, some of which was conquered by the Persians. Items of daily use decorated with animals may have been thought to offer protection or assist in a hunt; this cloth was placed in a tomb, where it was preserved through the millennia by being frozen. (Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia/Photo © Boltin Picture Library/The Bridgeman Art Library)